Mecha Talk

Wanted to post up some WIP I haven't gotten around to putting up.

Strayed:

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/ ... 213331.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/ ... 001630.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/ ... an0093.jpg

Epyon:

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/ ... 224159.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/ ... an0097.jpg

So generally you'll see that I have a similar approach to everything: draw basic figure with posture, then add on top of that all the geometry. I'll have everything overlap so I can see where everything goes, but of course I'll have to erase a lot of it when I do the final clean-up. lol, I forgot to include my pencil in my Epyon photo. =p

Anyway, what has everyone been up to?

edit: Page 8, wcch!!! >=o

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"Red particles are bad, they mutate you into... dead? But green/blue particles are good, apparently, for reasons and for purposes yet to be determined. Isn't science sometimes nicely color-coded?"
-Antares
GW: The Sword . Sera's Art . Gameplay . The Lost Citadel

Yes! Finally a scanner!
Art be up soon

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Faithful soldier of the Hatsune Miku Scout Force

AVATAR: Zeig Soryu!

This section needs moar luv lol
http://tehprognoob.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d31pp3j
http://tehprognoob.deviantart.com/#/d31donw
http://tehprognoob.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2y3vub
http://tehprognoob.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2y3wju

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Faithful soldier of the Hatsune Miku Scout Force

AVATAR: Zeig Soryu!

Are we dead?
SVMS-00 Realdo Zero Design Sheet

Study of an Over Flag

Anyone gonna critique these drawings?

_________________
Faithful soldier of the Hatsune Miku Scout Force

AVATAR: Zeig Soryu!

Been watching Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. I was interested in the art style, so I tried to imitate it, using my two OCs of course.

http://strikerougemk2.deviantart.com/#/d3bv2lz

http://strikerougemk2.deviantart.com/#/d3bt1zy

This was my first time doing a magical girl design, so I have to say it's a bit interesting. Since you're always using lolis most of the time, the outfits are usually frilly or sorta fancy much like the "loose construction" seen on Mecha Musume. It sort of is already along the same lines of dressing up a girl in some fancy and ridiculous way, but there are definitely differences.

Of course, you could always have them be Magical Girls and Mecha Musume at the same time. >.>"

*EDIT*
／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼
Make a contract with me!

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Be kawaii and visit the Art and Multimedia section.

The second one looks good, but the first's face came out looking a bit too wide. Not gonna lie when I say for a moment I was reminded of the Rugrats with their large heads. >_>

Other than that... get that freaking Kyuubei away from me!

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- Turinu's Design Compendium
- Turinu's Pixiv
- Turinu's DA
- Turinu's Franken Archives
- Turinu's 3D Warehouse

Thanks, I guess I tried too hard to make the head shape the same way as the anime. xD

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Be kawaii and visit the Art and Multimedia section.

Neat.

I found a video of one of my favorite artists Choco coloring some of his lineart. If you don't know who Choco is, he's the character/mechanical designer for the Xenosaga series and some other things.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13111715

If you don't have a Nico account (I don't either) use this redirctor: http://mmcafe.com/nico.html

I've always wondered how the pros do it. As it turns out, pretty much the same way we do it. You know, except with more talent. -,-;

_________________
"Red particles are bad, they mutate you into... dead? But green/blue particles are good, apparently, for reasons and for purposes yet to be determined. Isn't science sometimes nicely color-coded?"
-Antares
GW: The Sword . Sera's Art . Gameplay . The Lost Citadel

I thought this was really interesting. I mean, some of these do go through my mind whenever I ever try to make a MS, but the tutorial really helps explain quite a bit.

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Be kawaii and visit the Art and Multimedia section.

that looks very helpful, unlike this post.

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Faithful soldier of the Hatsune Miku Scout Force

AVATAR: Zeig Soryu!

First post of arts. Mostly mecha concept stuff. Lost my good work (laptop went under a truck) so I'll have to make lots of new stuff. Here's what I managed to recover.

Messing w/ Qubeley colors
Draft commission for Stararmy.com (friend went on to clean up for line-art, someone else colored it)
Draft ver. for Commander type (updates head & shoulder layout)
Doodle of Turn-A
High contrast design study of Linebarrel
Proof of concept for powered-frame back in 2008

Yes, I know none of it is clean line-art. As soon as I get my machine back, I'll mock up some 3D stuff. As soon as my classes are over for the summer, I should be able to start on commissions.

Is there anywhere we can talk about design concepts, like... Possible ways of solving design issues without using template parts? Say, coming up with a new gimmick for a machine or something like that or a transformation mechanism?

Also does Mechatalk have an IRC channel or anything?

Very neat. Reminds me of when I found out how comics/manga are done. I had (naively) thought it was all pencil, pen, and paint work. At first I felt disillusioned, like they were cheating, but then I felt better since it meant I could "cheat" too.


I'd be willing to bet it's as much a matter of practice as it is talent.

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"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C. S. Lewis

Beware the Haro

Hijacking the thread to do a scanner test, lol.

First, everyone use this and adjust their monitors: http://www.footootjes.nl/Various/bright ... etting.png
(thanks, crash)

Comparison test: lineart finish vs. scanner 'shadow' setting

link to full-sized images

This doodle is of an opabinia, my favorite extinct animal. I'm not very happy with the picture, but it's just a test sketch. Yeah, I got a little lazy with the teeth on its grabber.

Now, when I scan lineart for you folks, it's usually of cleaned-up/darkened lineart scanned with shadow at -100. I do this for a few reasons. First, without darkening my lines, pencil sketches come out very grainy when they are scanned at high resolution. The lines basically are not solid lines and look as though you had used the 'spray paint' tool in MS paint to draw the line. This is unusuable for PS editing for the most part.

I also use the -100 shadow setting because I am trying to approximate inking in my lineart without actually using ink. This is just the best I can do with a pencil, and there's not much of a way around it.

Now, I prepare my sketches and scan in this way in the case that I may choose to color the lineart in PS. It just makes it easier to clean and to clear away the negative space. Oftentimes, when I do color the lineart, the weirdness of the lineart just becomes less important.

Now, of the nine images, which is the most visible, and which looks the "best" to you. (Please realize these are different things.)

Anyway, that's just a scanner/lineart test for myself. I encourage others to do the same if you are wondering how your lineart looks on the monitors of others.

(Soooooo out of practice, bleaugh.)

_________________
"Red particles are bad, they mutate you into... dead? But green/blue particles are good, apparently, for reasons and for purposes yet to be determined. Isn't science sometimes nicely color-coded?"
-Antares
GW: The Sword . Sera's Art . Gameplay . The Lost Citadel

No doubt shadow 0 looks the cleanest. I'm not going to say anything about good or bad, but for functionality I would go with shadow 0.

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Faithful soldier of the Hatsune Miku Scout Force

AVATAR: Zeig Soryu!

So I've already shared my opinions with Sera on which of his compare/contrast images where best -imo it was the image in the exact center. That's not what this post is actually going to be about. No rather it's going to be about something that came up during our conversation or more correctly spawned from that conversation that I think you benefit everyone has a whole.

When scanning pencil work remember that it is, in fact pencil work. You aren't going to get those sexy consistent dark lines you see with your naked eye when you're canning at 300dpi. You're not going to end up with lines of the same quality and darkness as your favorite artist (no not me ...I wish... those other guys- you know the professionals). Nine times out of ten what you're thinking of would be quality inking, digital lines, and so forth. pencil doesn't do that. get use to it, accept it, embrace it.

Resolution:
If you draw a picture that's 6in by 6in, scan it into the computer at 300dpi (or such) realize that at 100% magnification on your image will be much much larger when displayed on your monitor. in the above example to get the 6x6 image down to the size of the hard copy I had zoom out to about 25% magnification. So scanning it at 300dpi and viewing the image is like looking at the hard copy with a 4x magnifier which will inevitably show us all the flaws of our hands, the grain of the paper and so forth. You'll notice that rarely are any of the lines actually black and the darkness of the lines are inconsistent, get use to it that's how pencil is.

That's not to say you shouldn't scan at such high resolutions, rather that you should expect pencil lines to be pencil lines. The higher the resolution you're working with the more detail you'll be able to stuff into an image. if you're uploading raw (or slightly modified) pencil works to say, DA then you probably should use a smaller scale image then the high dpi scan (I should practice what I preach I know) so that you viewers will see a more 'precise' representation of the hardcopy.

I think I should probably stop there before I start tripping over myself. Its harder for my to competently explain what I'm meaning then one would expect. thus the over wordiness. Apologies.

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Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.

Fooling around with wet edge/watercolour square brushes on PS:

Mecha WIPs:
1
2
3
4

Chara WIPs:
1
2
3

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RINRIN NANO DA!!

How the blazes is the 2nd chara wip's face and chestplate so detailed in terms of clarity and lighting effects, when everything else is blurry and murky :O

_________________
Faithful soldier of the Hatsune Miku Scout Force

AVATAR: Zeig Soryu!

I switched to the usual hard round brush once I was satisfied with the general appearance of the face & upper torso. Imho, the watercolour brush is good for establishing lighting & texture, but is a bit too messy for detail work.

Like so: 5

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RINRIN NANO DA!!

I like these shots with scale comparisons of infantry next to your mecha. might I suggest a shot of the interior of a mecha's cockpit?

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Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
-----------------//-----------
ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.

Dunno if I want to revive my old art thread or make a new one, but I do want to see if people are wondering what I have been doing...

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-noeltan
noel's dA

carny (kär'nē) n:

A thousand tiny fingers clawing at your spine.

scream train (skrēm trān) n:

Two hundred tons of unstoppable terror burning through the night.